In Harm's Way
by lsellers
Summary: In the aftermath of Leek's conspiracy, Lester's daughter finds herself drawn into a web of intrigue.  Slight who elements.  Lots of fanon.  Sequel to The Night Before Christmas.


Thanks to lonely-candle for beta-reading and for the loan of Liz Lester.

**Part One**

"Lorraine can you call up MI5 or MI6 or whoever the relevant people are and tell them I want a look at this file."

Lorraine peered over her glasses at Lester. He was standing in front of her desk with a post-it note in one hand and a look of such studied disinterest on his face that she knew instantly he was hoping for a miracle and trying not to let it show. Then she looked at the file number he'd written on the note. It consisted of numbers and digits, nothing else. Lorraine was mystified. "Can I tell them why?"

"I found a reference to it in Leek's computer files, and something about a breeding programme. If you need to put the frighteners on them to get hold of it, feel free, but use your discretion. I'd rather not tip too many people off."

"I see." Lorraine looked at the file number again and shifted several mental gears into battle-axe mode. "I don't suppose whatever you looked at gave any hint which intelligence agency was holding the file, did it?"

"We should be so lucky. I don't even know who Leek's contacts were, but he must have had some to build that facility of his. Start with requesting the file from all of them in turn, see if that scares anyone out of the woodwork."

"Very good, sir. Do you need it in time for the inquiry?"

"I don't think so. That's looking to be a fairly standard affair. A bit uncomfortable for me and some questions will be asked about our vetting process, but he came with good references. A lot of other important people are going to look very foolish if they make too much out of it. No, keep this separate. I don't want to muddy the waters."

* * *

Captain Jon Lyle cursed quietly but fluently from where he lay in a slight ditch about 100 yards from the anomaly.

"At least we got the kids away from there," said Captain Becker.

"Yeah, we got the kids away, shame about their teacher," Lyle shot back.

Lyle's team had been assigned to the shout but Becker had volunteered to help out. Lyle was a couple of men down. Blade had a broken leg courtesy of an over-enthusiastic Triceratops and Kermit was on paternity leave. It wasn't that Lyle objected to having Becker around but it muddied up the chain of command which he didn't like. More importantly, Becker wasn't one of Ryan's men and there was no real way to get around that. It made the lads uneasy.

Becker was right about focusing on the kids, though. Ryan had never let recrimination get in the way of a job so neither would Lyle. The kids had, in fact, already been on the way out of the grounds when the soldiers arrived, but one of the teachers had gone back, curiosity over-riding common sense. The woman's body lay in the mud. One of the raptors was slowly dragging it back to the anomaly.

_"Looks like velociraptors to me."_ It was Taylor, on loan from UNIT. His thick welsh accent echoed loudly over the radios.

"I have seen a velociraptor before," said Lyle. "Anything useful on their behaviour?"

_"I don't know. I'm still getting used to this database."_

"Well get back to us when you have something," said Becker. "It's not his fault Connor didn't leave a manual," he said quietly.

Lyle scowled. It wasn't Taylor's fault he wasn't Connor. It wasn't Becker's fault he wasn't Ryan. That didn't mean Lyle had to like the situation.

"Can we shoot them?" asked Becker.

"Take a bit of killing, but yes, bullets won't bounce off them or anything alarming. They just do that reptile thing of ignoring injury for a stupid length of time."

Becker said nothing, but Lyle saw the slight shrug from the corner of his eye. He ignored it and turned to his medic.

"What do you reckon, Lieutenant Owen. Might she still be alive?"

To his credit, Ditzy didn't answer immediately, but regarded the still form being dragged across the field. "Unlikely, but possible."

Lyle nodded. "OK men, we're going to try to scare the raptors back through the anomaly but we won't be crying if they don't make it. Careful where you shoot. If that teacher's still alive we don't want to be responsible for killing her. Aim high and walk forwards slowly. Finn, Lacey, cover the flanks but keep out of line of fire."

His men rose out of the ditch and headed towards the velociraptors in a steady line, firing high as they went. Finn and Lacey fanned out to either side, keeping a wary distance but ready in case the raptors came their way. The raptors paused and eyed the soldiers warily. One bounded forward, standing over the teacher's body and screamed out a challenge. Lyle aimed carefully at its head and shot. It fell heavily across the woman. The second turned and ran.

* * *

"No luck with that file, I'm afraid, sir!" Lorraine had spent the better part of a morning on the phone about the file and then had sat back and waited to see what would happen. That was three days ago. No one had got back to her or responded to her follow up calls. She was pretty sure she'd hit a brick wall.

Lester was sitting at his desk, frowning at the handful of letters she had brought in for his attention, but he looked up when she spoke. "That sounds ominous."

"They could just be covering their involvement." Lorraine was accustomed to Lester's withering looks, so she merely endured this one and then played the only card she had. "C19 were the most obnoxious about it sir. But that's par for the course."

Lester looked thoughtful. "It is, but that doesn't mean there's nothing going on. They never liked the autonomy we had, and Leek was with them before he came here."

Lorraine watched Lester thinking.

"Get me Mr. Graham on the phone. I think it's time the two of us discussed this upcoming inquiry frankly."

"Very good sir." Lorraine left the room.

* * *

Once she was gone Lester dumped the letters in his in-tray. He would look over them later. Then he fished out his notes on Leek. There was minimal information, just a few snippets he had gleaned from Connor's upload of Leek's computer system. He knew there was a `breeding programme' but he had no idea who was running it, or what their aims were.

He also knew that there were customers and the first shipment was predicted for early August. It was now late June. It was definitely time he put some heat on C19.

* * *

"You did well today," said Becker.

Lyle tried not to snap back at him. He didn't need a pep talk from Captain Becker. He also knew the pep talk was only happening because everyone had got so used to him being the Lieutenant and the Captain's right-hand man that they half-expected him to just return to that space, now there was another Captain on the team. It didn't help that his team had been posted to Afghanistan for a tour. They got back to find the ARC a changed place. Cutter was dead, Jenny had resigned, Connor and Abby and some new bloke called Quinn were missing. There was a new, young, slick and smiling Captain in Ryan's office. The office Lyle had refused to use when he got promoted in the aftermath of Ryan's death. Nothing was right. Everything was difficult and his men were jittery and uncertain as a result.

Major Preston had even warned him that there would be problems, in a round-about way that involved a lot of swearing. He'd offered Lyle a commission in another unit, said he'd try to move the whole team across, but Lyle had wanted to stick with the ARC. He felt a loyalty to the place and the people, even though most of them had now gone.

He watched as the ambulance was driven away with the teacher on board. Lyle was surprised she had still been breathing when they reached her. But she had been. He was glad they had aimed high. "Paramedics think she'll make it," said Ditzy coming over. "It'll be hit and miss though."

Lyle nodded. "You and Finn stay and watch that anomaly until it closes. The rest of us will get back to the ARC and start on the paperwork."

"Can't you get Lester to do it for you?" asked Lacey.

"What do you think, Private?" Lyle returned shortly. It wasn't that he necessarily objected to discussing his personal life, but he didn't want to get into it in front of the new Captain. He didn't know what Captain Becker thought of homosexuality, nor fraternising with civilian big-wigs and he didn't particularly want to find out.

* * *

"Well," said Kathy Burke, "this is nice."

Liz Lester scowled at her across the table. The restaurant was crowded and noisy. The walls had been lined with mirrors, so Liz could see her own face, truculent and sulky under her dark hair. She looked like a spoilt child, she realised. Liz had a horrible fear that service would be slow and this `friendly meal' she was being forced to have with her mother would go on forever. She tucked a strand of hair that had fallen loose from her pony-tail back behind one ear and tried to look more adult. She needed to aim for cold and disdainful.

"Liz, you do have to say something," said Kathy. "You can't just sit there and sulk for an hour."

"Try me," said Liz.

Kathy sighed. "How's your father doing?"

"Fine."

"I heard there was some sort of inquiry going on."

"Nothing Dad can't handle."

"Are you sure?"

Liz looked up. There was a change in her mother's tone that set warning bells ringing. "What do you know?"

Kathy shrugged. "A man came round asking after him and Captain Lyle."

"What did you say?" said Liz suspiciously.

"Nothing," Kathy returned in an irritated tone. "What do you take me for?"

"Someone who can't hold a civilised conversation with Dad for more than 10 minutes."

Kathy rolled her eyes. "That still doesn't mean I'm about to give out details of his love life to random strangers."

Liz was intrigued in spite of herself. "Who did the man say he was? Journalist?"

Kathy shook her head. "Civil servant he said, MoD. He certainly seemed more Government than Press."

"Why would the MoD be interested in Dad's love life?"

"That's pretty much what I thought, so I didn't say anything."

"Did you ask Dad about it?"

"Imagine the row."

Liz thought about that. "D'you mind if I mention it?"

Kathy shrugged. "Guess not. I have the card he left somewhere. Give me a moment."

Liz glared suspiciously at her mother and nurtured the disturbing feeling that she'd just been played.

* * *

Jenny and Lorraine had fallen into the habit of having lunch together on Wednesdays in Jenny's first few weeks at the ARC. She had been bewildered and abrasive, trying to fit in with a team that not only didn't want her but _felt_ like it wanted someone else.

Lorraine, a side step away from the scientists, and a side-step towards administration and PR had shown quiet sympathy in the efficient processing of forms, fielding of phone calls and the odd offer of lunch. They had gradually fallen into a routine and, after Jenny left, they kept up with the lunch time meetings.

Jenny sat in the sunshine outside their regular small restaurant and idly looked at the menu. She knew it backwards but the habit of reading and choosing lingered with her.

"Sorry I'm late." Lorraine hurried up and sat down.

"Don't apologise, I know what the place is like. Has a Triceratops run amok in Madame Tussauds?"

"Don't tempt fate. No, nothing so exciting. That official inquiry about the Leek incident is still rumbling on. Given every agency in government wants the whole thing quietly swept under the carpet, it's creating a huge mountain of paperwork."

Jenny shook her head. "Troublesome to the last. If no one wants a fuss, why is it even happening?"

Lorraine shot her a hard look and Jenny realised why, suddenly. In fact it was obvious.

"Cutter pushed for it, didn't he?" she asked. In fact she remembered him ranting about it shortly after Stephen's death, but then Cutter had been ranting about a lot of things at the time and since it hadn't really fallen under her responsibility, she'd quietly filtered it out.

Lorraine nodded. "I think he wanted someone to blame. He made a lot of noise. Someone decided the whole thing had to happen, just for the look of the thing. Cutter may have had the political instincts of a small puppy but he was a professor and he was visible, if nothing else."

Jenny sighed, "And now it has a momentum of its own, I suppose."

"Yes, but there's only a week or two to go, then it's all over. Thank God!"

* * *

"Dad? Did you know someone had been round at Mum's asking about you?"

Liz watched her father's face, but it was carefully neutral. "Really?" he said, in a bored tone. She'd hoped to surprise him with the question when his guard was down, which meant just after Coronation Street. It seemed the ploy wasn't going to work.

"Yes, really! MoD they told Mum. She's thinks it's got something to do with the inquiry. They were asking about you and Lyle."

"I couldn't possibly say. It's possible I suppose."

Liz bounced down on the sofa next to him. "Take it seriously Dad! What's this bloody inquiry about if your private life is relevant?"

"My private life isn't relevant. Don't worry about it Liz."

"Dad!"

Lester looked at her sternly. "Keep out of it. I know you want to go in all guns blazing, but it's nothing to do with you and I have it under control."

"But Dad!"

"I'm serious Liz." Lester picked up the Times and stood up. "I'm going to bed. Try to prevent Lyle disturbing me until I've at least had time to read the headlines.

Liz stuck her tongue out at his retreating back. It was clear that she was getting nothing out of her father.

"Has the soap opera ended?" Lyle emerged from the study where he had retreated to watch football on iPlayer the moment Coronation Street started.

Liz waved at the televison. "What do you think?"

Lyle's eyes narrowed. "Have you and your father been arguing? You've got that Lester stubborn face on."

"Not exactly, no. Do you think you could ask him something for me?"

"No. I'm keeping out of any arguments you two decide to have. Where is he?"

"Bedroom." Liz decided not to mention Lester was reading the paper. It would serve him right for not letting her in on whatever the problem was.

Liz sighed as Lyle left and turned her mind back to the problem at hand. Lester was worried and that meant she was worried too. The business card, which her mother had handed to her, flipped over and over in her hands as she thought through the options.

* * *

"I heard you turned down a job with UNIT," Lester muttered over his lover's shoulder as they lay spooned together in bed.

"You and your bloody networking. Who told you that?"

"Does it matter? Why did you turn it down?"

"It's not like it came with a promotion and besides, you need me at the ARC."

Lester sighed inwardly. He had a feeling this conversation wasn't going to end well but it was a conversation they needed to have.

"You'd have had your own Company to command, rather than a section, international recognition, better promotion prospects," Lester said.

Lyle shifted in his arms. "Are you trying to get rid of me?"

"Of course not, but I don't want to hold you back."

"Has someone said something?"

Lester frowned at the back of Lyle's head. "What makes you ask that?"

"Is shagging the hired help spoiling your image as the perfect civil servant?"

Lester closed his eyes. He'd been worried the conversation might take this turn. "It is a little irregular. But I wouldn't raise it if I didn't think you were throwing away an excellent opportunity."

"Would it be more regular if I was a leggy blonde from the secretarial pool?" Lyle was clearly going to fixate on the negative.

"It wouldn't be more regular no."

"But?"

Lester sighed out loud this time. "But it would excite less comment."

"The lads need me. The ARC needs me. The whole place was in chaos when we got back from that last posting in Afghanistan."

"Becker didn't have much to work with. Your men had to learn the ropes once."

"Which we did without compromising security or getting the chief Science Officer killed. You need me, Lester."

Lester let the matter drop. Becker's men were working much better now. There was no real scientific team to speak of at present. Certainly the team Lyle knew and trusted had all gone. Lester felt the strains in the morale at the ARC. Captain Lyle, his relationship to Lester, and his tightly-knit team who made it clear that things had worked smoothly before all these newcomers turned up, were more than a small part of the problem. But for once Lester lacked the courage for the fight. Lyle would view it as a betrayal.

* * *

The man sitting opposite Liz was youngish and awkward, as if his body had somehow grown too large and wiry for him. Liz had him pegged as junior staff. Presumably his job was to vet her in some way and then pass her on up the chain.

"So, as part of the custody deal after your parent's divorce you are forced to live with your father." The man frowned.

"That's right," said Liz firmly not giving his doubts time to crystallise, "and I want to go back to live with Mum. I'm fed up of him and his boyfriend."

The man coughed. "You'd be prepared to go on record with an account of his lifestyle."

"Sure!" said Liz. "Serve him right." She hoped she wasn't overdoing this. She wanted to appear keen, naive and a little vindictive, not perky and obnoxious.

"Very good," said the man. "I'll arrange for you to talk to someone and we'll write up a statement for you to sign."

"Good oh! I'll wait here shall I?" said Liz brightly. If she was going to achieve anything she needed to steam-roller the forces of bureaucracy into submission. She'd seen her mother do this a couple of times and had cringed with embarrassment, but she had noticed how effective the technique was on the right sort of lower-management bureaucrat.

Oh God! She was turning into her mother.

She looked at her interviewer expectantly, willing him to get up and leave her alone in the room with its inviting looking piles of paperwork. The man looked slightly disconcerted. "Yes, yes. Just wait here. I'll be right back!"

Liz allowed herself a small smile of triumph as he left the office. Once he was gone she nipped quickly around to the other side of the desk and rifled through the drawers, mostly stationary. Then she took a look in the filing cabinet. Her gaze was arrested by a folder with the words "Leek, Oliver" typed on the lable. The name rang a bell of some kind and the folder was bulging with documents. Her fingers reached out to rifle through them.

"What are you doing?"

Liz looked up to realise her interviewer was back. It was a shame the office hadn't had windows into the corridor, then she might have seen him coming. She pushed the filing drawer to and decided to act like a spoiled child, better to get pigeon-holed as a brat than a spy. "I was bored."

"I think," he said frostily, "that this interview is now over. I'm sure we'll be in touch."

Liz scowled, but there was little she could do to avoid being escorted from the building.

* * *

"Heard you turned down an offer of a transfer to UNIT." Sayed, UNIT Liaison to the ARC, was drinking lemonade in the sunshine.

Lyle had opted for bitter. It was a beer garden after all. He and Sayed had met at Sandhurst and, now their jobs had brought them back into contact, they often met up for an informal chat. Their superiors tacitly encouraged the friendship.

"Everyone seems to have heard that," grumbled Lyle. "What's the big deal?"

Sayed ran a hand over his bald head in a habitual gesture. "You turned down a perfectly decent offer of advancement. That makes people want to know why."

"I have loyalties."

"You're not the only person capable of fighting dinosaurs you know. I heard Captain Becker was shaping up."

"Oh yes! He'll be fine once he graduates from kindergarten. You've heard a lot."

Sayed stared blankly into his glass for a moment. "I've seen a lot of women throw away their career prospects for one reason or another, usually their partner."

"I'm not a woman."

"You're doing this for Lester though."

Lyle suppressed the temptation to growl. He was doing the right thing, sticking with the ARC. Why did no one else seem to think that?

* * *

"So why exactly are we having lunch?" Jenny asked, raising one perfect eyebrow.

"Can't good friends have lunch?" asked Liz.

"We're good friends now are we?" Jenny smiled. "Come off it Liz. I worked for your father for nearly two years. You're not fooling me."

Liz sighed. "Something's up."

"Liz, something is always up. He's a politician. I'd be worried if something wasn't up."

"There's an inquiry."

"We had an insider turn traitor. I've already given evidence. It shouldn't be too much of a problem. It's routine to have an inquiry about these sorts of things, but your Dad didn't do anything wrong."

"But Jenny, they're poking around in his private life, asking about him and Lyle. I just know they're trying to blacken his name."

"That's putting it a little melodramatically. He's allowed to have a private life and this the the 21st century."

"It's some department called C19. I went to their offices and volunteered to testify against Dad and they almost snapped me up before they found me poking around in their filing cabinets."

"C19?" Liz observed a mixture of emotions flit across Jenny's face. "They're bad news Liz. Keep well away. You're lucky they didn't arrest you."

"So you admit this is serious."

"It's serious but you really, really don't want to tangle with C19. Believe me."

"Who are C19 and who was Oliver Leek? I remember his name and they had reports from him in their office."

"Liz, keep away. I'll take it from here."

"You have to tell me, Jenny. Who was Leek? What's going on?"

"I'll deal with it Liz. Keep out."

"No."

* * *

Jenny had pulled up around the corner from C19's prestigious London office and squeezed into a tiny parking space. Liz watched her empty her purse into the meter. Then Jenny paused to look back into the car where Liz sat in the passenger seat, arms folded aggressively across her chest. Liz hoped her disapproval of the plan was obvious.

"You'll stay here?" Jenny, it seemed, could scowl just as fiercely as Liz could.

"Yes."

"I'm serious, Liz. You put a foot outside this car and I'm phoning your father. Do I make myself clear? This absolutely isn't a game."

Liz opened her mouth to protest and then shut it again. "Message received. Loud and clear."

Jenny nodded. "OK, here goes nothing."

She pulled a small identity badge out of her brief case and pinned it on her lapel. Then she headed towards the entrance to the C19 building. Liz watched her march around the corner and then settled down to wait.

It was about fifteen minutes later that a well-dressed man came around the corner and walked over to the car. He appeared to have keys, since he opened the locked door and sat down inside, next to Liz.

"Who are you?" she asked suspiciously.

"None of your business," he replied. "However, you are going to get out of this car and go into the building with my friend."

Liz glanced out of the passenger door window and saw there was a second man standing there, blocking her exit.

"And if I don't?" she asked.

"I'll shoot you."

Liz glanced down, and saw that the man was pointing a small revolver at her.

Part Two

"You can't do this," said Liz in desperate defiance. "I don't care who you are, you can't just kidnap people!"

She was sitting in the back of some kind of van, with her hands cuffed. Jenny sat opposite her, looking pale and alarmed. Their guards weren't saying anything.

"They can't do this, can they?" Liz appealed to Jenny.

"I'm not sure," said Jenny slowly, eyeing the guards carefully. "Technically no, not in the way they've just done it. But a lot of that is our word against theirs. If they'd arrested us while breaking and entering..." Jenny's voice petered out.

"But I'm a minor. They have to inform my Dad. I have to have an adult present!"

"Only if questioned, I think. So far they've not questioned us."

"Where are we going?" Liz turned her attention back to the guards. "What are you doing?"

The men still didn't answer.

They drove on into the darkening skies.

* * *

"Liz not home?" asked Lyle as he wandered in.

"Obviously not." Lester barely glanced up from his paper.

"Oh well! Time for some you and me time." Lyle flopped down on the sofa next to Lester and placed an arm around his shoulders.

"I'm reading the paper."

"Which you can do once Liz bursts in and says `don't mind me, just carry on'"

Lester laughed quietly. "I think she means it, you know."

"I'm sure she does. Doesn't mean I want to canoodle on the sofa while she's fixing bacon and eggs - any more than I want to walk in on her and Juliet when I fetch a beer from the fridge."

"I don't have beer in the fridge."

"Liz and I have an arrangement. We hide it at the back, behind the Waitrose hummous mountain. Anyway, why are you so tense?" Lyle ran a hand thoughtfully along the back of Lester's shoulders. "It isn't this inquiry, is it? I thought you said that was going to be a white-washing job?"

"I thought it was, but someone's decided to play nasty. I'm just trying to figure out why."

Lyle sat back and stared at Lester. "Who've you insulted lately? More than usual, I mean?"

"No one in particular. No, I've obviously asked the wrong question in the wrong place at some moment."

"Any idea which question?"

"Not really, but Leek had some notes about a breeding program and Lorraine is being stone-walled by everyone we've asked about it. My money's there, which probably means C19, which means things could get very nasty. I've no friends there."

"Can you do a deal?"

"That rather depends on the nature of this breeding program, don't you think?"

Lyle grunted. "That's the problem with you. Just as I think you're going to do something efficient and evilly politician-like, you grow a conscience. You're going to fight the inquiry then."

"Right now, it's the only choice I have, but it means I'm going to be rotten company for the next few weeks."

Lyle laughed. "Don't worry, I've had bastard COs in the past. I'll just remember to jump to it when you bark and take my frustration out on the range."

* * *

"Jenny! Jenny! Wake Up!" Jenny rose up through confused memories of dark corridors and masked men, to the sound of Liz's voice.

"Mmmm?" asked Jenny sleepily.

"Jenny, wake up, you're having a nightmare!"

Jenny blinked herself awake. She was lying on a narrow bunk bed in a tiny cabin. She and Liz had been locked in there some time early evening. The gentle movement of the room told her they were at sea. "Sorry Liz, did I wake you?"

"I couldn't sleep." Liz whispered. "I keep thinking about Dad. He'll be worried sick. Juliet, too, we were supposed to be going out tomorrow."

Jenny gave her hand a comforting squeeze. "It's not your fault. I knew I shouldn't have let you tag along." Jenny kept her thoughts to herself, but they ran on C19's reputation for black ops. Mostly they reflected that there were places C19 could move them to that were outside UK jurisdiction. There were cover stories that could be constructed that might not seem plausible, but would be plausible enough to prevent people looking too closely. She was frightened, and frightened for Liz, but mostly, she just wondered why C19 were bothering. She and Liz simply weren't that important in the grand scheme of things. Why bother with a kidnap when a sharp reprimand would have served?

"Do you think they've let Dad know?" asked Liz.

"Lester will kill me," muttered Jenny glumly. She'd underestimated the danger and now Liz was in C19's hands.

"At least he can't sack you."

Jenny chuckled, in spite of herself. "No, I suppose he can't."

"Why did you leave Jenny? You didn't say. Is that what the nightmares are about?"

"Not really, though I suppose they could be related. You know Nick died."

"Yeah, Dad said. He was pretty cut up about it."

Jenny had thought long and hard before she resigned, so it wasn't difficult to explain her reasons. "I was fond of Nick too. Very fond of him, I suppose. Too fond, perhaps. I let it all get a bit personal and when he was gone... I don't know. I felt a little as though I'd made a fool of myself and a lot as though I just couldn't really see the point any more."

"Oh," said Liz. "And the nightmares?"

"A nightmare, it's not like I have recurring nightmares, for which I should consider myself lucky, I suppose."

"OK, the nightmare, what was it about?"

Dark corridors, and sinister faceless men; the feeling of being trapped and helpless. Jenny struggled with what to say. "About six months ago, at Christmas, there was a break in at the ARC."

"Oh! I heard a little about that, Lyle's mate Hamza had something to do with it."

"Indeed he did. He took us all captive and then used me as a hostage. Hand-cuffed me to a radiator." Jenny could tell her voice sounded sharp and bitter. She was glad of the darkness so Liz couldn't see her face.

"I didn't know that. I just caught a chance remark. I assumed he'd been working with Dad and Lyle."

"He did at the end. He turned out all right but... I suppose I was very frightened. Being taken captive again must have set the memory off."

In Jenny's mind Captain Hamza Sayed was defined by a few short moments. The impression of strength and ruthlessness and power lingered in her mind and she knew that she always froze up a little when his name was mentioned. It wasn't really fair on him. He'd also been courteous and gentlemanly. He took her out to dinner once, but the fear always muddled her emotions whenever she thought about him. She'd never phoned him back for a second date.

* * *

"What are you doing with me?" Liz demanded.

She had been frogmarched up to the ship's bridge. Beyond the windows it was early morning. The pale light showed instrument panels, charts laid out on the table and, most importantly, a working GPS system.

"Miss Lester?"

She assumed the man in front of her was the ship's captain. He was in a naval uniform of some kind and had an air of authority. She judged that he must be in his forties or fifties with a thick set face that was beginning to show the first traces of lines.

"So what if I am?"

He nodded at an aide who began dialing a number on a bulky satellite phone.

"What's going on?" Liz asked.

The captain ignored her, listening to the phone until it was answered.

"Mr. Lester?" he asked. "Very good. I have your daughter here."

"That's my dad on the phone?" asked Liz, her mind racing. "Let me talk to him."

"You say hello and then I take the phone back," said the Captain. "I hope that's clear."

The phone was held to her ear. "57 degrees north, 9 degrees west," Liz shouted the numbers off the chart. "Do you get that Dad? 57 degrees north, 9 degrees west!"

The phone was snatched away. She half expected someone to hit her and rocked back in anticipation, but the Captain just pursed his lips in disapproval. "Take her away," he said.

As she was dragged out she could see him lifting the phone once more. "Mr. Lester, my instructions are very clear. No harm will come to your daughter if you play nicely."

* * *

"What's that all about?" asked Lyle suspiciously.

"None of your business." Lester was thin-lipped.

"No? Sounded like some kind of blackmail to me! Was it about Liz? She didn't come home last night, I just checked her room."

"Keep out of it, Jon."

"James, she's my family too, you can't pretend she isn't. What's going on?"

"I said keep out of it!" Lester's expression was dark. Lyle firmly closed out of his thoughts.

Lyle opened his mouth.

"No! Keep out!" Lester tore the top page off the notepad on the hall table and brushed past Lyle.

Lyle remained gaping in the hallway a moment. Then he eyed the notepad thoughtfully and pulled a soft pencil from the holder.

* * *

Lester was writing his resignation letter when he felt Lyle's breath on the back of his neck.

"Don't do that, Jon. Sneaking up on me isn't funny."

"Blackmail isn't funny either. What are you afraid I'll do if you tell me? Spill the beans to the police?"

"Go on a one-man hunt to get her back."

"Oh!"

"I haven't lived with you for two years without getting some insight into your character."

Lyle's arms sneaked round Lester and Lester could feel him eyeing the letter over his shoulder.

"Resignation eh?" said Lyle. "It's Saturday morning. No one's going to get it until Monday. Can you hold off until then?"

"No, I can't, Jon, and I won't."

"It won't make any difference."

"It'll make you think there's a chance you can do something. It's too dangerous, Jon. We handle this my way, no heroics."

"Just me. Just the weekend. Don't give up, James. You know I wouldn't ever put Liz in danger and she'll kill you if you just give up like this."

Lester sighed, folded the letter up carefully and placed it in an envelope. It signalled the end of his career. Something might be salvageable, once Liz was back and safe, but it would generate too many questions. He wondered if there were any career options in civil service memoirs.

"Liz would not want you to do this," whispered Lyle.

"She's only sixteen. Liz doesn't want a lot of things that are going to happen anyway."

"That's not true. You know her. She's level-headed and sensible with the determination of a pit bull. She'd never, ever, ever, agree to this. Not in a million years and she'd be right. You've got resources, James. You can fight this."

Lester badly wanted Lyle to be right. Not just because of his career, but also because of the ARC and all the people there who depended on him and the political will that was needed to keep hunting for Connor, Abby and Quinn. Not to mention the sick dread that, even if he did play nice, C19 had little reason to return Liz to him, beyond a certain graciousness to a defeated enemy. C19 did not strike him as particularly gracious. Did he dare risk it? How much, exactly, did he trust Lyle? Lester put the letter carefully down on the desk, smoothing it out. "Very well, Jon. I'll hand the letter in, in person, on Monday."

Lyle patted him on the shoulder. "Good decision."

"I hope so. This isn't some game Lyle. It's my daughter's life on the line... and Jenny's too, it would seem."

"Jenny!"

"They say they have her as well."

* * *

Captain Hamza Sayed had been woken up from a well-deserved lie-in to hear Lyle's urgent tones on the end of the line. "Sayed mate? It's Lyle! I've got a problem."

Hamza had pulled strings like mad, working from the ominous designation, C19, and a grid reference.

Now he had a name, Black Rock Island. Black Rock Island appeared to be a lump of rock off the coast of St Kilda. For some unknown reason it was ostensibly Argentinian, but they had leased it to C19 for a hundred years. It wasn't far from the grid reference Liz had given. Hamza also had permission for a single unacknowledged operation with minimal resources. It would have to do.

* * *

"You should tell Juliet," Lyle said as he packed his bag. Sayed was picking him up in an hour.

"I shouldn't have told you. Why the hell would I tell Juliet? The more people who know the riskier this gets, and it's already a lot riskier than I'd like."

Lyle managed to shrug, rather than grabbing Lester by his carefully tailored lapels and shaking him. "Your choice, but I don't want to be the person who explains to Liz why Juliet was kept in the dark. And they had a date this evening, you're going to have to tell her some excuse."

Lester waved a dismissive hand. "Leave it to me. I'll think of something."

Lyle stood up and pulled Lester into his arms. "This is all going to be OK."

"I wish I had your confidence."

"Trust me."

Lester closed his eyes. Lyle kissed him gently then let him go.

* * *

Liz sat and glared at Jenny across the dinner table. It was bad enough that they'd been kidnaped, tied up, shipped about and then locked in an, admittedly rather luxurious, cell but now, it seemed, they were expected to make polite chit-chat with their captor.

He'd introduced himself as Mr. Caine. He had smooth black hair, flecked with grey and was wearing a suit that Liz knew, from long exposure to her father, was well-tailored. Jenny kept glancing side-long at him and a small smile constantly hovered at the corners of her mouth as she decorously sipped wine and nibbled at her salmon.

Liz scowled at the pair of them.

"How long do you propose to keep us here?" asked Jenny. Liz was startled. Jenny's eyes were still lowered and she was gazing up at Mr. Caine from under carefully made up lashes but there was an edge to the question that the flirtatious delivery didn't disguise.

"Only until James Lester decides to play nice."

"Really," Jenny smiled. "And if he doesn't? You can hardly keep us indefinitely. People may be looking for us."

"Oh, I have no doubt someone is. But we are a long way from London here and outside UK jurisdiction. I'll doubt they'll find us and even if they do they will have to get past my pets."

"Pets?"

"Miss Lewis, you will have to allow me some means of maintaining my air of dashing mystery. However, I would caution both of you against any attempt to escape."

* * *

"Aww fuck!" muttered Lyle as he pulled on the wing suit. "You arranged it this way deliberately didn't you." He scowled at Captain Sayed.

"No choice mate," Sayed grinned as he checked Lyle's parachutes. "No idea what surveillance equipment they have and these are the least likely to trip anything."

"I hate fucking wing suits."

"Cheer up mate. There are caves once we get down there."

Lyle stared Sayed hard in the eye. "You will suffer in those caves, Captain Hamza Sayed."

"Looking forward to it Captain Jon Lyle."

"Right! Let's do this thing!"

They jumped from the UNIT airplane and began their descent towards Black Rock Island. Lyle only hoped it was the right place.

* * *

"Aww fuck! I hate caves."

"Your infiltration route," said Lyle cheerfully.

"Do I detect a note of smugness in your tone?"

"What? Me? Smug?"

Sayed hit Lyle gently. "We need to be careful. UNIT pulled some plans from when the place got built, but we've no idea what security systems they have."

* * *

"What was that?" Hamza Sayed didn't consider himself particularly nervy but something was making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. If he'd been Lyle, he'd have said his thumbs were pricking.

"Your imagination. Pull yourself together, caves aren't that bad."

"It's not the caves, Lyle, we're being stalked."

Lyle snorted quietly.

"Honestly, just hold still and listen and stop being a smart arse."

"You're imagining..."

"Shut the fuck up, Lyle. I don't like caves but I've been on enough ops not to let a twinge of claustrophobia get to me. Now listen!"

Lyle straightened up and listened. Hamza watched him rub his thumbs thoughtfully. Then Lyle turned slowly to look behind them, but the caves were dark beyond the beams of their torches.

In the silence nothing moved. Lyle turned back and glanced sideways at Hamza. They shared an understanding.

Hamza gestured onwards and they started to move, cautiously and quietly this time. Behind them came the faintest of sounds.

Hamza switched off his torch and ducked behind an outcrop, gesturing Lyle to carry on. Hamza could almost see Lyle grimace, but the man knew better than to argue with an order.

A shape moved through the darkness. Hamza stilled his breathing. It was rapidly obvious it wasn't human and Hamza was forced to hope that it's sense of smell either wasn't up to much, or that his scent was covered by the artificial fibres of the wing suit.

The only light he had was from Lyle up ahead but it cast just enough for him to see a silhouette. His mind said cat, though he wasn't quite sure why because it was big. It was huge. He'd seen stuffed polar bears that were smaller than this and polar bears were high up his list of animals not to meet in the wild.

The vast shape padded silently up the tunnel. When he listened hard, Hamza could hear Lyle's faint footfalls, but this beast was making no sound. Hamza raised his gun, sighting where he hoped the head might be. Then he heard a low rumbling growl. He had a brief impression of white teeth and the the shape jumped straight at him.

Part Three

Lyle had walked maybe twenty yards up the tunnel when there was a sudden sound of gunfire behind him.

He turned and ran back. His torch showed Sayed standing over a sleek cat-like creature.

"That thing's huge!" muttered Lyle.

"You're telling me, mate. Quick and quiet too. Wouldn't want to tangle with a pack of them. Any idea what it is?"

"How the fuck should I know?"

"You're the one who's always hanging out with extinct species. D'you reckon it could be a sabre-toothed tiger?"

"Nah! I've seen one of them, this is nothing like."

It was smaller and more compact than the smilodon had been, but still big. Something winked at Lyle from around it's neck and he crouched down to look more closely.

"It's been tagged."

"What?" Sayed crouched by him and looked at the thin collar the creature wore. "Looks like a heart-rate monitor."

"But why would you..." Lyle's voice tailed away. "Fuck! They'll be sending a team down here to check on sonny boy and once they see the bullets the hunt will be on."

* * *

Claxons blared out causing everyone in the dining room to jump.

"Excuse me," said their host. He stood and walked towards the door. Liz seized the opportunity presented by his turned back to lift a steak knife from the table.

"Take them back to their rooms," ordered Caine.

Liz debated internally as they walked along the corridors. When was the best time to act? If there was an alarm on now, it was probably as good a moment as any. But they'd need to dispose of their escort somehow. She decided to make her move when they were just outside their room. They'd could shut him in once he opened the door.

Liz braced herself dropping the knife gently into her hand. When their escort ran a card through a reader next to the room they'd been locked in, Liz stepped up close and pushed him suddenly against the wall, pressing her knife against his throat.

"Jenny! Open the door!" she ordered.

"Liz?"

"Just do it."

To her credit, Jenny pushed the door open.

"What do you think you will achieve by this?" demanded the man, but he looked nervous.

"Why should I tell you?" returned Liz. "Go on! Into the room! Jenny take the card!"

She shoved him roughly into the room and slammed the door shut.

"What are we going to do?" asked Jenny.

"Don't know. Something though, anything's better than hanging about worrying."

Jenny pursed her lips. "And the pets?"

"Yeah, well." Liz shrugged and tried to look nonchalant.

Jenny looked up and down the corridor. "Let's assume there are no pets actually walking these corridors. See what we can find out. Make the most of the opportunity." She flashed Liz a smile and Liz distinctly saw her square her shoulders.

Liz looked up and down the corridor. She realised that she was shaking slightly, alarmed at her own audacity and the danger. "Which way?" she asked.

"Well, we came from that direction," said Jenny. "If we're going to explore, let's head that way."

* * *

Lyle and Hamza crouched in the tunnels, listening to the shouts and stamping feet. Fortunately the system had been formed naturally which meant it had a number of unexpected turns and crannies. Lyle was an expert at finding such places. They were about three feet up a tunnel wall, jammed into a crack. Hamza loathed everything about it. He could feel the walls closing in.

"They'll find us eventually," muttered Lyle.

"We wait until that first batch have got further out, then we slip in behind them."

"They'll still have the main entrance covered."

"They always would have done, mate. It's the best chance we've got."

"I hate fubar ops."

Hamza glanced at his watch. "OK, it's been five minutes. Waiting won't make us any prettier."

They dropped down from their hiding place and began to jog quietly through the tunnels.

* * *

There were five guards on the doors. In fact there were five guards positioned behind a small defensive barrier that ringed the entrance to the complex. The entrance itself was set into the solid rock of the cave wall. It wasn't going to be easy to get in. Hamza began producing explosives from various pockets.

"That's going to be a bit noisy isn't it?" asked Lyle.

"They already know we're here. All we got now is speed." Hamza eyed the entrance carefully. The guards weren't going to be easy to deal with.

Lyle was obviously thinking the same thing. "We should decoy some of the guards off into the caves. Five's a lot for the two of us to take out, even with surprise on our side. They have the advantage of position."

Hamza paused. He might be able to persuade Lyle to act as decoy, but Lyle's ties to Liz were strong. Hamza knew Liz a bit, but not much, and his connection to Jenny amounted to hand-cuffing her to a radiator and then being told politely to get lost. He'd taken her out to dinner, once, since and it had felt a little like the start of something, but then it fizzled. She had a complicated relationship with a professor and a wary look in her eyes whenever she glanced his way. So it was clear that Lyle was going to be the one inside the complex searching for his step-daughter and the beautiful but aloof Jennifer Lewis. Hamza decided to accept the inevitable with good grace. "Good idea. I'll draw them off. You go rescue that step-daughter of yours." He handed over the explosives and checked his gun.

"Don't get caught," admonished Lyle.

"As if."

Hamza took a run past the entrance and sent a spray of bullets in the direction of the guards. Then he headed for a second cave entrance opposite. He could hear shouts but, as yet, no movement. He popped his head out. The guards were gesticulating and talking into radios. He offered up a silent complaint, chased it with a swift and contrite prayer, and then popped out again, moving slowly towards the guard post, using cover carefully and choosing his shots. The guards had the light behind them which meant they were silhouetted and easy to see. He managed to hit one, which was good. It would add urgency to the others' attempts to get rid of him. He grunted with satisfaction when he saw two slip out round the edge of the defences, obviously in an attempt to flank him. He began to retreat drawing them away and to his tunnel. He was just reaching it when he saw a blur of movement and one of the guards screamed. The other started to run towards him at full tilt, but he was turning now to fire back the way he came.

Hamza didn't pause to think too hard but took to his heels and headed deep into the tunnels.

* * *

There were two guards left outside the door. Lyle wasn't quite sure what had happened. He'd seen the blur of movement, and all the guards had opened fire. Lyle saw what he hoped was Sayed disappearing into the tunnels at the far side, a guard on his heels. Lyle told himself not to worry. Sayed knew what he was about, even if he went into a funk whenever he got underground.

Lyle considered his options and then selected a small projectile explosive from the kit Sayed had handed him. He edged forward across the space, trusting to the low light levels to keep hidden. As soon as he was close enough, he primed his grenade and lobbed it over the heads of the guards. Five seconds later he was on his feet and running towards the defensive barrier. One of the guards was still alive and struggling to his feet. Lyle shot him quickly and then turned his attention to the lock.

* * *

Hamza had been running for about five minutes. He stole occasional glances behind him but couldn't see what was following. However he had a distinct sense that it was on his heels and that it was, in fact, toying with him.

He had heard the second guard scream. A high and loud scream that had ended in a gurgle.

Hamza rounded a corner and something heavy landed on his back. He couldn't see what it was in the dark. It must have been about the size of a man but there was skin against his face that felt leathery. He had a distinct sensation of long fingers on his shoulders and a haze of warm, smelly breath blew past his ear. Teeth sank into his neck. He shouted out loud and instinctively punched backwards with one hand. He felt the weight drop and staggered round.

He let off a burst of fire and then thumbed the torch mounted on his gun. He wanted to see what he was facing. In the beam of light he saw three creatures crouched in the tunnel. They were about the same man-sized. They had no fur and looked, vaguely human like, in the way they moved and crouched. Thin leathery wings stretched between their limbs. The lead creature opened it's mouth and snarled, revealing rows of sharp teeth.

Hamza fired again, into the gaping mouth this time, and was pleased to see the thing topple backwards, but the other two leaped for him. He stepped back, firing, but was amazed to notice his bullets seemed to be bouncing off the leathery hides. He'd thought only aliens had bullet-proof skin. One creature spread out its limbs and glided through the air on the skin stretched between them. Hamza continued firing and was relieved to see it drop to the ground, the wings in shreds. Then the next was upon him, claws raking his body armour. He punched with the butt of the gun, wincing at the pain in his shoulder. It fell back, giving him a moment to reach the knife at his belt. Then he stepped in close and thrust, letting the sharp point, with his weight behind it slip in where the skin seemed to stretch over the creature's throat. The knife slipped home and it fell back to the floor.

He pulled the bloody thing free and turned to the other creature which lay shrieking on the floor, limbs flailing. He stabbed it through the throat and then paused to examine the bodies. The creatures looked like bats with enlarged ears and tiny eyes. Their hide was leather and was thick and layered over most of the body, almost forming plates of armour, but where it stretched thin it was vulnerable. He was just lucky the throat was one of those places.

He shrugged off his pack and began to pull out his first aid kit. The adrenaline high was already wearing off and his arm felt heavy and limp. He wondered what other monstrosities were lurking in the tunnels.

* * *

"I heard an explosion," whispered Liz.

"We head in that direction, then," said Jenny firmly.

"How do you make that out?" sputtered Liz.

"Either they're fighting someone in which case we want to meet up with them or they're up to something and we want to find out what it is." Jenny hoped she was sounding braver than she felt. She couldn't honestly see Liz's escape attempt ending well but they were escaping now and needed to make the most of it they could.

"What do you think you're doing!" shouted a voice. "Drop that gun, raise your hands and turn around slowly!"

Liz and Jenny looked at each other in surprise and alarm. Jenny turned cautiously, but there was no one behind them.

"Round that corner," whispered Liz.

Carefully they walked to the corner. Jenny fished in her pockets and pulled out a small make-up mirror. She crouched down and pushed it round the corner at ground level, feeling Liz's chin resting on her shoulder to get a better look. In the mirror they could see Lyle. He was facing the mirror, but a soldier was between him and them. The soldier's back was facing them, but even so, Jenny was pretty sure he was carrying a gun.

Before Jenny could react, Liz had barrelled around the corner. Lyle's mouth dropped open as Liz weighed into the soldier with two sharp punches and a well-aimed kick. As the man collapsed, Liz grabbed the gun from his unresisting fingers.

Jenny walked round the corner. "Good afternoon Lyle, what are you doing here?"

"Rescuing you two."

"Going well, is it?" asked Liz.

* * *

Lyle had a large map spread out on the wall of the corridor. "I got this map from UNIT."

"UNIT are here?" Jenny hoped she didn't sound too eager, but the thought of a small regiment of well-disciplined soldiers was distinctly comforting.

"I'm afraid not. It was just me and Sayed."

"What happened to Sayed?" Jenny felt a sick dread. It had been bad enough when Nick died. She hardly knew Captain Sayed and their acquaintance hadn't started well but, well, he had been a friend of sorts. She didn't want his death on her conscience.

"We got separated. Don't worry, he's a pro. Anyway, this is the best map UNIT have of this place. Someone managed to wangle the construction plans out of C19."

Jenny rolled her eyes. "Bet you anything you like the internal layout bears no resemblance to this."

"I already discovered that. But, this internal harbour here must be in roughly the same place. It exploits a natural sea cavern, according to this." Lyle tapped a large open area on the map.

"What's the plan?" asked Liz. "We're not going to get far in a boat."

"We've got a beacon. If we can get out into the ocean there's a UNIT boat can pick us up."

"That assumes we don't have a dozen men in speed boats chasing us."

"So we're going to have to be quiet and discreet."

Jenny groaned looking between Lyle and Liz. "We're doomed."

"What about Sayed?" asked Liz. "Don't we have to wait for him?"

"Hopefully he'll meet us at the harbour. If not, we don't wait. Right now they're blackmailing your Dad so it's important we get you out. If Sayed gets caught there will be a lot of inter-departmental bullshit but he'll be fine eventually."

"Are you sure about that?" asked Jenny, dubiously.

"Pretty much. UNIT have a lot of clout and Sayed, bless him, isn't important enough for C19 to risk making a stink over."

"Or UNIT to risk making a stink over either, for that matter," pointed out Jenny.

"UNIT stick by their own, or so I've heard."

"It's just..." persisted Jenny.

"Either way, he'll try to meet us at the harbour, so that's where we're heading."

Jenny couldn't argue with that.

"I'll take this gun," said Liz, unexpectedly. They had tied up the soldier she had attacked. His gun was lying discarded in the corridor.

Lyle looked at her appraisingly. "You know how to fire that thing?"

"The CCF fire a variety of the SA80. It looks pretty similar."

"I don't think..." began Jenny.

"Not a lot of choice," Lyle overruled her. He turned to Liz. "You know the rules. Don't point it at anyone if you're not actually going to fire it."

"Don't take off the safety unless you intend to fire. Every shot should be aimed. Yeah I know the rules. We going to do this?"

Lyle nodded. "I'll take point. Jenny in the middle. Liz, you're rear guard."

"Lester will kill us for letting her have a gun," Jenny whispered to Lyle as they set off.

"She's a sensible kid and she's been around guns. Our chances are better this way. I'd kill myself if she got hurt because she didn't have a gun."

"And if she gets hurt because she does?"

"Like I said. She's a sensible kid. I trust her."

"I can handle a gun! Let me have it!"

"She practices."

Jenny glanced back at Liz. Somehow the gun made her look even younger than her years. A frightened girl, clutching something big and black and ugly.

* * *

"Well this certainly isn't on the map," whispered Jenny.

They were in a large cavernous warehouse area, with a distinct animal smell in the air. It was dark, but Lyle's torch showed a door on the far side.

Lyle consulted his GPS and cross-checked with the chart. "Works in our favour though. All this warren of corridors is gone and the harbour should be just across the room."

Lyle flashed his torch around the room and a creature from Jenny's nightmares suddenly flung itself into the beam of light, crashing against the side of a cage. Jenny gave an involuntary gasp and stumbled backwards.

"What was that?" asked Liz.

"Some kind of predator from the future," muttered Lyle. "Shit! What is this place?"

"Oh God!" said Jenny. "We know C19 were behind Leek. This must be another storage area. Like the one where..." she tailed off.

"Where what?" demanded Liz.

"Where Stephen died," said Lyle grimly. "Right we get out of here and we report this place to Lester, asap."

They started out across the floor.

"What else is in here do you think?" asked Jenny.

Lyle flashed his torch over the cages. Jenny got a blurred impression of scales and fur and teeth. "All sorts of shit," muttered Lyle grimly. "Come on!"

"Wait a moment!" Jenny had spotted a small desk as the torch beam swept past. It was full of paperwork. Her curiosity and administrator's instincts were aroused.

"Jenny, we don't have time for this!" hissed Lyle as she headed over.

Then the door at the far end of the room opened. Jenny could hear voices. Any minute now someone would turn on the lights. Jenny looked around frantically. There was another door behind the desk. Without thought, she darted forwards, opened it and stepped through.

* * *

There were muffled sounds of shouts and, more alarmingly, shots. Jenny hastily stepped away from the door, aware that less than an inch of wood wasn't much protection against high velocity bullets. She realised she was in the main corridor on Lyle's map. She could hear more shouting. Hopefully that meant Lyle and Liz were still alive, but she couldn't go back the way she had come.

Somewhere feet were running, coming her way. Jenny eyed the labels on the doors that lined the corridor, as she hurried away from the noise: office; armoury (locked); infirmary; storage unit. Jenny tried the door to the storage unit and was relieved that the handle turned. She pushed her way in, closing the door.

"Hello Jenny. Long time no see." The voice was a bare whisper.

Jenny had a sudden vivid flashback to a darkened room and a man in a balaclava. She whirled round to see Hamza slumped against one wall, what looked like a makeshift bandage around one shoulder.

She gasped, in spite of herself. "You're hurt!"

"Ran into something nasty in the tunnels."

Jenny crouched down and looked at the dressing cautiously.

"If you could manage to tie it a bit tighter, things would look up," whispered Hamza. "If you don't mind."

"No I don't mind. What do I need to do?"

"It's worse than it looks really. The bleeding has stopped, but I'm worried about the bandage slipping."

Hamza was wearing a bullet proof jacket over a black shirt. Jenny had to help him off with the jacket and then push the shirt away. He'd tied the bandage across his body from the bite where his shoulder joined his neck down under the opposite arm. Jenny pulled it tight and tucked the ends in, resisting the temptation to let her hands linger on his smooth skin. Hamza's breath drew in sharply as she tugged, but he managed a smile to match her own.

"It's good to see you again, Jennifer Lewis."

"It's good to see you, Hamza Sayed."

* * *

"Should we move?" whispered Jenny. She glanced anxiously at the storeroom door.

Hamza shook his head. "Too much activity still. We need to sit this out."

"Oh well, at least there isn't an anklyosaurus out there."

"Or that bloody musical Christmas card."

They both laughed quietly. Jenny eyed Hamza thoughtfully. It was difficult, now, to imagine being afraid of him. If anything she felt reassured by his presence.

"How's your complicated professor?" he asked suddenly. There was a slight catch in his voice. Jenny wondered if she detected a hint of jealously.

"He died."

"Oh." Hamza paused. "Oh, I'm sorry."

"It's OK. I've got used to the idea and there was never really anything between us, just lots of complications."

"It's still tough to lose a colleague."

"Yes," Jenny agreed, thinking of all the colleagues both lost and genuinely dead. "Yes, it is."

Hamza fell silent, staring thoughtfully at the gun cradled in his lap.

* * *

Liz was running. She wasn't sure where exactly, she just kept Lyle in sight and hoped for the best. Behind them, somewhere, were pursuers.

When the lights had flooded on in the warehouse, Lyle had shot out the lock on the nearest cage and shouted, "Follow me!"

Liz hadn't watched what happened next. She was busy filing the sounds of animal shrieks and human screams somewhere safe for examination at a later point. The important thing was that it shouldn't distract her now. She'd done this before, she could do it again. Get out of danger and then deal.

Lyle slowed up. "You OK?" he asked.

"Yes." Liz scowled at him. "That was a raptor of some sort, wasn't it."

Lyle nodded. "Nasty buggers but they're not bullet proof. It'll only keep C19 occupied for so long."

"Right. So what do we do? We need to find Jenny."

Lyle's mouth straightened into a line. "You're the priority."

"We can't leave Jenny!"

He looked her in the eye and the contours of his face softened a little, but his tone when he spoke was grey. "I'm sorry Liz, but the same argument applies as with Sayed. You're the Ace card here. Chances are, once we get you out they'll both be safe."

"You don't know that!"

"Liz, I do know that if you fall back into C19's hands we've lost. I also know that if we fanny around trying to find Lewis and Sayed then you'll almost certainly fall into C19's hands. We're barely ahead of the game as it is."

"This sucks!"

"You're right about that. It sucks big time. But that's the way it is."

"OK, where now?"

"Harbour's back the way we've come. We're going to have to double-back and be ultra-cautious. We'll try skirting round that big warehouse room, maybe listen up at the door in case it's empty and we can cut through."

* * *

"Check every door!" The order echoed down the corridor.

"Can we hide?" asked Jenny.

Hamza laughed and stood up, helping her to her feet. "Somehow I don't think so. Looks like our luck may have given out."

The door handle turned and Jenny found herself shoved behind Hamza, trapped between his back and the wall. The sudden sense of security hit her so hard she clutched onto him in surprise.

Hamza had already dropped the gun and raised his hands by the time the door opened. Their captor paused and then called over his shoulder. "I've found two of them!"

* * *

Jenny and Hamza were led back into the warehouse area. This time the lights were on and several armed men were standing around. Loose tarpaulins had been thrown over the cages. There was blood on the floor. Jenny hoped it didn't belong to Liz or Lyle. A lean man with an air of authority looked them up and down. His gaze drifted over Jenny and then, apparently, dismissed her to fix on Hamza.

"Who are you with soldier? How many of you are there?"

Hamza shook his head. "Don't give me that. It's not my job to make your life easier."

The lean man nodded towards one of the others and a tarpaulin was pulled off a large box. Jenny recognised the creature inside as a velociraptor, two-legged, with a tearing claw on each foot. It screeched and threw itself against the bars of the cage. Jenny recalled many lectures from Abby on animal care. This one was probably hungry, angry and frightened all at once.

Hamza seemed unfazed. "Dinosaurs eh? I assume you're expecting me to be impressed."

The lean man looked bored. "Not impressed by dinosaurs? What about this?" A second tarpaulin was pulled free and Hamza was pushed up against the bars of the cage housing the predator. It immediately flung itself forward, snarling mouth open wide.

"Not a dinosaur expert, mate. What is it, a velociraptor?"

"It's the most efficient killing machine ever to evolve on Earth." Jenny looked around sharply when she heard the cultured tones of Mr Caine. "It's going to wipe out humanity, puff! like it never existed."

Hamza appeared to eye the predator thoughtfully as he was pressed up against it. "Now that's quite a claim. What makes you so sure?"

"Just passing on the information. Good evening Miss Lewis. You'll forgive me if I'm not entirely over-joyed that it is you they've re-captured. You are something of the second prize in this little game."

Jenny suppressed the desire to grind one of her high heels into his foot. "I'll survive," she said mildly.

"Now I think this handsome soldier of yours owes us a little information in return."

"It doesn't work like that mate."

Caine nodded. The man pulled Hamza back slightly and then slammed him against the bars of the cage, again. "How many men do you have with you? Who do you represent?"

"Oh fuck off," said Hamza. "I've already been asked this."

"Really, you _are_ being most obstructive." The soldier pulled Hamza back once more at which point the lean man stepped forward smartly and punched him in the stomach. Hamza doubled up and fell to the ground.

"What are you trying to do here?" asked Jenny, desperate to create a distraction.

Caine raised his eyebrow, "Guess."

Jenny looked about her. "Well, you're shipping creatures somewhere."

"How observant."

"Destabilsation," said Hamza from the floor. "You set something like that free, somewhere where the infrastructure's a bit wobbly and all hell will break loose."

"Very well deduced, Mr. Sayed. Kneel him up. I'd really like him to give me some information and if he won't I want him shot."

"You're not going to shoot," said Hamza, sounding bored. "We're both members of Her Majesty's Armed Forces. You shoot me, and the paperwork, if nothing else, will be a total nightmare."

"Since you now know what the plan is, I really can't afford to let either of you get back to ARC or Lester's allies. This is C19. You'll find a lot of the normal rules don't apply."

"There'll still be paperwork. Always is. You're British after all."

Caine laughed mercilessly. "Shoot Miss Lewis, start with the knees. That will give our toy soldier something to think about."

With a chill Jenny saw the gun turned upon her.

Part Four

At that moment a door banged open and Lyle charged in, firing as he came. Instinctively Jenny dropped to the ground. There was a horrific and deafening sound of gunfire and screams, then silence.

When Jenny raised her head, she was surrounded by bodies. Hamza was still kneeling where he had been put. Across from her stood Lyle. Next to him, clutching the big ugly gun was Liz. Her face was white as a sheet and set in a grimace of horror.

"Liz, are you all right?" Jenny clambered to her feet, all else temporarily forgotten.

"I think I just killed someone."

Lyle reached Liz before Jenny did. He enveloped her in a hug for a moment and then stood back, took her by the shoulders and stared into her eyes. "You did what you had to Liz. It's not pretty, but sometimes the world leaves us no choice."

Jenny bit her lip. She badly wanted to hug Liz too and tell her it would all be all right, that she hadn't killed anyone. But when Jenny looked at the bodies on the floor and the unsightly pools of blood... Her mind went into a coldly calculating place that noticed the direction of the spatter. Liz had almost certainly just killed someone, and lying to her probably wouldn't help the situation; she was too sharp and brittle to be brushed off with platitudes. Jenny thought she was good with people, but this was beyond her experience. Lyle, the soldier, was better equipped for this.

Liz took a deep gasping breath. "He wasn't really threatening Jenny that bad."

"You don't have time to decide these things," said Hamza staggering to his feet. "They might have backed down, but they could have easily fed us to the predator."

Jenny gulped. "I like my kneecaps. Thanks Liz!"

"It's more than kneecaps," said Hamza. "You might easily have never walked again. Liz did the right thing."

Lyle waved impatiently at both of them and turned back to Liz.

"We can work this out later," he said. "Right now we need to concentrate on getting out of here. Are you with me?"

Liz gave one short nod.

"The suit got away," said Hamza. "I think you winged him, but he made a bee-line for that other door. Five minutes tops and the whole place will be here."

"OK, let's get out of here and steal ourselves a boat."

"Wait a moment." Jenny found her eyes drawn back to the packing crates, the velociraptor and the predator.

"What? We can't afford to hang around."

"This might be important."

There was a clipboard resting on the edge of the crate. Jenny walked over and picked it up, looking through the dispatch notes. Livestock She didn't recognise the names of the receiving organisations but she didn't like the look of the countries: Zimbabwe, Cuba, Iran. Her eyes drifted back to the caged animals. "They're mad," she heard herself whispering.

"Who are?" asked Hamza.

"C19. They're going to ship these animals out to various world trouble spots. Like you said, they want to destabilize governments by triggering a crisis."

"Take more than a couple of dinosaurs to destabilize some of those places," said Hamza, looking over her shoulder. "They're used to large wildlife."

"Not something like the predator though. That's going to..." Jenny cross-checked the code numbers against the tag on the cage, "Iran."

"No one would be crazy enough to set it loose in an urban area would they?" asked Lyle.

"Better believe it mate. There's no end of crazy out there."

"Take the shipping records. We'll take some photos. Use it as evidence," said Lyle.

"No time," said Jenny. "These ship in three hours. They'll be long gone before anyone gets here."

"What then?"

Jenny bit her lip. Nick would hate to hear her say this. "We'll have to kill the animals. I don't think there is anything else we can do in time."

"No!" said Liz. "No more killing!"

"We don't have much choice," said Lyle gently. Jenny watched him check his gun. "Or enough ammunition. Sayed how are you doing? Some of these buggers take a lot of killing."

"I've got a clip left, but bet you anything you like they've got others around here. There's the animals in the tunnel system for starters. We're not going to slow them down much by killing these here, an hour or two tops. We'd do better to destroy the harbour and helipad. Then they won't be able to move large cages off the island."

"Breeding program!" Lyle slapped his forehead. "It's the fucking breeding program."

"What breeding program?" Jenny asked.

"Don't know for sure. Lester's been muttering about it in odd moments. It would explain why they're trying to blackmail him though. Fuck!"

They all looked at each other. Jenny wondered if the calculation was as plain on her face as it was on on Hamza and Lyle's. Up until now Liz had been the ace and all their efforts had been focused on getting her back to Lester. But now the choice was between Liz and Lester and some untold number of people in Harare, Havana and Tehran. Lester was breathing down the necks of these people. Would slowing them down be enough? Even if they were all captured or killed?

"You got any explosives left?" asked Hamza.

"Yes!" Lyle looked decided. "Liz, you're coming with me. Let's see if we can find the helipad that's on Sayed's plans. Sayed, Jenny, see if you can secure a boat and do something to bugger up the harbour."

Jenny opened her mouth to protest at Liz going to the helipad, but then shut it again. Lyle was the closest thing Liz had to a parent here. She didn't need to interfere.

* * *

"Are you worried I'll fall to pieces?" Liz hated herself for asking, but it was like a hundred different thoughts and worries were working at her brain and saying even just one out loud was imperative.

Lyle stopped on the stairs ahead of her. She saw him glance both up and down the stairwell, clearly checking for threats, then he sat down and patted the step next to him indicating she should sit.

"I'm not a child, you know."

"Yes, you are Liz, and you know it. You're one of the most sensible, sorted out kids I know, but you are still a kid and one of the ways you've always shown how level-headed you are is that you've never pretended to be something you're not. Now sit down."

Liz stared at his face, which looked deadly serious, and then reluctantly sat next to him on the stairs.

"Right, now the first time you kill someone, it's horrible. It always is. It's one of the ways you know you're human. A good soldier never takes killing someone lightly. That's why we have the rules we do. You know that right?"

Liz nodded, more just to make him carry on, rather than because she necessarily agreed.

"You did the right thing back there, and I'm proud of you. But there's a reason every right-thinking army deplores the use of child soldiers. Sometimes, simply because you're so level-headed, it's easy to forget how young you are. That's my fault."

"I _chose_ to pick up the gun."

"And I chose to let you. And right here and now, you're the kid and I'm the adult and, what's more, I'm your father's lover so that makes me responsible. I shouldn't have let it pass like I did. So firstly I want us to be clear on that. Once I'd let you have the gun, you did everything right, and if there's anyone to blame for anything it's me not you, OK?"

Liz nodded again. "OK." She still felt a seething mass of anxiety and doubt but she did feel somewhat better. There was the knowledge that Lyle as going to stand between her and anything that was coming.

"Good. Secondly, let's be honest with each other, you've been thinking about a career in the army, haven't you?"

Liz looked at him carefully. "I've never said so."

"No, but you're in the CCF, and you ask a lot of questions."

"Maybe I'm just interested in who my dad is banging."

"And maybe you're interested in a career in the army, because prurient curiousity in your father's sex life isn't really you. So I'm telling you, you did well today. At sixteen you shouldn't have had to go through that, but you did really well, and if you want a career in the army, the way you're reacting now and the way you're dealing with it makes me think you would be better at it, rather than worse. I don't think you're going to fall apart on me, and that is the most important thing. We need to get rid of that helipad and then we need to get out of here. I'm going to keep you as safe as I can, and I'm going to protect you as much as I can, and we'll deal with anything else that happens once we're home. I just need you to carry on being Liz Lester and not try to be any older than you are, and certainly I need you to carry on being sensible and tough."

"OK. I think I can sort of shut it away and worry about it later. That's what I did when the dinosaurs attacked us on that school trip."

"Yes, if you can do that it'll help. But don't forget to let it out again once we're safe. Keep being Liz."

Liz managed a wobbly smile. "I'll do my best."

Lyle grinned back. "That's my girl. I hate myself for saying this but hang onto that gun. Just don't shoot unless all else fails."

* * *

"There's not a lot of activity here," whispered Jenny as she peered over one of the crates at the side of the harbour.

"All out looking for us, I suppose. Can you see a likely looking boat?" Hamza was crouched next to her and they were wedged between the crates and the wall. Jenny had her mirror out once more and was angling it around the harbour.

Jenny looked in the mirror. The harbour was in a large natural cave, a mixture of boats were moored up on jetties. "How about that one?" She pointed out a motor boat. It was relatively small, so there wouldn't be anyone unexpected on board, but it had a covered area and looked big enough for four.

"Not a bad choice. Now to work out where to place explosives."

Jenny moved the mirror about doubtfully. "It's not going to be easy to close this place down."

"No, and we need to."

"The entrance then, somehow. Can you bring it down?"

"Don't know. Depends how strong it is really. I need to see, can you budge over?"

There was an uncomfortable moment or two as Hamza climbed across her so he could see round the edge of the crate. Their shoulders were pressed close together once he sat down and Jenny found herself flashing him a small smile.

"Sorry!" he said. "Bit squished, I know." He looked awkwardly away from her.

Jenny looked at him closely. His face looked strained and she guessed he was in a lot of pain from the shoulder. Maybe that explained the `keep away' vibes he was giving off. She gave a mental shrug and turned her attention back to the problem in hand.

"What about the big boat on the right," she asked. "Could we move it in across the entrance somehow and sink it?"

"Now there's a thought."

* * *

The helipad was free to the open air. It felt like a blessed relief to be fighting the wind.

"Where is everyone?" asked Liz.

"I reckon they're short-staffed. Facility this size, it should be crawling with people but I think most of them are still in the tunnels. Everyone else will be headed for the harbour, assuming we're escaping that way. Jenny and Sayed are going to have all the fun."

Liz watched Lyle walk around the helipad, placing Hamza's explosives and then, almost without thinking, she moved back towards the emergency stairs and kept an eye on them, listening for footsteps in the stairwell.

"Right, I'm done," said Lyle suddenly. "We're on a ten minute timer. We need to get down those stairs and out onto the ground floor fast."

* * *

Jenny and Hamza had stolen the small boat they hoped to escape on and driven it out to a much larger one anchored in the centre of the harbour. The handful of dock workers hadn't even glanced their way as they drove off, proving that you could find a jobsworth anywhere. Hamza had placed charges in the hold of the large boat and was now trying to work out if he could hot-wire the starting motor. Jenny rather gathered that theft and electronics weren't his speciality, although he claimed to have been on a course.

"Believe me," he said from under the engine housing, "if this were a Honda we'd be long gone."

"Miss Lewis, Miss Lester, I do hate to interrupt your escape!" Mr. Caine's voice rang out across the harbour cavern.

Hamza's head emerged slowly. He looked at Jenny. "Have a look outside," he whispered. "Try to keep him talking or distracted."

Cautiously Jenny backed out of the cabin. Caine stood on a metal gantry that ran around the harbour. The dock workers seemed to have vanished. Caine was back lit from the corridor behind him, a sinister shadow surrounded by brilliant white. A large box stood next to him on some kind of trolley. Jenny sincerely doubted he'd wheeled it there himself. She deduced tjat he must be being theatrical.

"You can't keep us here forever, you know," she shouted.

"To be honest, we never intended to keep you here for long. Just long enough. However, now you have all become inconvenient. It looks like you will need to be disposed of."

Jenny heard Hamza shuffle in the cabin. She glanced down and saw him crouching on the floor behind the door. He appeared to be readying his gun. Jenny balled her hands into fists, resisting the temptation to shout a warning, or ask Hamza if he really meant to shoot. She met Hamza's eyes and he nodded her to one side.

Calmly she moved and Hamza surged to his feet, raising the gun to his shoulder. There was a crack as he let off a shot. Caine disappeared backwards through the door behind him and it shut with a bang. Jenny blinked as the light levels suddenly dropped. There were a few lamps positioned on the jetties, but somehow the light they cast was minimal.

"Goodbye, Miss Lewis, Miss Lester," Caine's voice echoed over some kind of PA system.

There was an ominous clanking sound. Jenny's eyes were drawn to the large box. The top appeared to have come loose. The unmistakable form of a future predator was perched on the edge, it's head raised to catch the echoes from the vast chamber.

Part Five

Jenny saw Hamza stiffen. She'd thought him alert before but now he seemed entirely focused and preternaturally still. Then he said quietly. "Know how to handle a gun?"

Jenny glanced at the predator. "Absolutely."

"There's rifles in that gun locker. Get one."

Jenny knew the locker he meant. He'd smashed in the lock, less than five minutes ago, hoping the engine key might be inside. She stepped quickly into the cabin and grabbed one of the guns and a clip of ammunition.

He was still standing on the deck, focused on the predator as she emerged. "I suppose it's too much to hope the thing can't swim."

"Probably, they can be shot though. Nick killed one once."

"Should have known. Anything else you can tell me?"

"They hunt by echo-location and sound."

"Shit!" Hamza hissed.

Jenny looked back to the gantry. The predator had vanished. There was a sudden bright light. Hamza, it appeared had lit a flare. It illuminated the whole harbour area. Desperately Jenny looked about for the predator, only to see it, already on the boat to one side, crouched to spring.

Without thinking, she swung up the SA80 and let off a burst in it's direction. It tumbled backwards under the hail of bullets and into the water.

* * *

"How unexpected. Though perfectly delicious."

Liz halted where she stood in the stairwell and looked back to see Lyle turning round slowly. She recognised Caine's voice. Lyle stiffened, looking behind him and further up the stairs.

"Drop the gun, Captain Lyle. I assume you are on your way to join your companion and the two ladies. I fear they may be having a spot of bother with a predator."

"What have you done?" asked Lyle.

"Drop the gun and raise your hands."

Carefully Lyle placed the gun on the floor and stood up with his hands raised. "Go on, tell me then."

"Ah Captain, I don't think so. I just hate shooting armed men, they can do such unexpected things."

Liz didn't let herself think. She stepped smartly out round the corner and opened fire past Lyle.

"Liz!" he shouted.

She stood still, feeling the adrenaline rush. "I had no choice, right?" she asked desperately.

Lyle looked shaken. "Right. You did fine."

Liz forced herself to look at the broken body on the stairs. She'd hit him three times, a ragged trail of bullet holes across his chest.

Lyle picked up Caine's gun. Liz looked at his face and saw the concern get wiped away and a kind of hardness replace it. She felt strangely calm herself. Now wasn't the moment the moment for concern. Right now, they needed to get things done.

"He came from up there?" Liz pointed to the door. "You reckon there's a second route into the harbour?"

Lyle glanced at his watch then he rifled quickly through Caine's pockets and produced a key card. "Only one way to find out. It's now or never, though."

"Better be quick then."

* * *

"Can you see it?" whispered Hamza. He was walking quietly round the deck, his gun aimed at the water.

"No."

He drew in a hissing breath. "We need to lure it back on board, then we set off the explosives and jump for it."

"How do we lure it up here?" Jenny whispered. "Should I tap dance down the deck and then flash my knickers?"

"It's a tempting idea. Watch my back."

Hamza began to kick the side of the cabin, a slow rhythmic beat. Jenny watched all around. The loud bangs made her tense up. The creature must know where they were but then that, presumably, was Hamza's plan. Suddenly the door on the gantry opened once more. Liz and Lyle were clearly silhouetted against the light.

"Jenny? Sayed?" called Lyle.

Jenny saw movement, up on the ceiling above them.

"Watch out!" she screamed and fired in the general direction of the predator.

She saw Lyle glance upwards and then, without hesitation, he grabbed Liz in one arm and jumped off the gantry, into the water below. Seconds later the predator landed on the steel struts, claws slashing through the space where the two of them had stood.

Hamza opened fire. The predator turned, snarled and leaped again for the two of them on the boat, scrambling across the roof of the natural cavern. A hail of bullets from their guns followed it, but the thing was moving too fast. Then it leapt through the air towards them.

"Allah be praised," muttered Hamza. "Jenny, jump! Now!"

Jenny dived off the side of the boat, she was aware of Hamza following her and then an explosion ripped through the water behind them. Seconds later there was a second explosion, somewhere way up above them. Jenny assumed it was the helipad.

Jenny kicked off her shoes and swam in the direction of the harbour's edge. The burning boat lit up the whole area and she could see Lyle and Liz, ahead of her, scrambling out of the water and onto a jetty. Then something splashed and dived. She thought she saw a ridge rise up out of the water and then sink again. She stopped and started treading water, her mind racing. There was something in the harbour area, no doubt something too big to get out of the narrow entrance, another one of Mr. Caine's pets.

"Did you see that?" asked Hamza from the water beside her.

"Yes." She reached out and clutched his hand. He gave it a squeeze, but then quickly dropped it.

"Lyle! We have company!" Hamza shouted.

Hamza struck out once more towards the shore and Jenny followed him.

"Lyle! Boat!" Liz shouted and began running down the jetty.

Lyle followed her. They scrambled into a motor boat and Lyle began pulling at the engine's starter motor. Jenny kept swimming towards them, trying not to think about whatever was in the water with them. Hamza seemed to be dropping behind. She turned, treading water and looking back.

"Keep swimming," he shouted tersely. "I'll get there."

Jenny turned and struck out again towards the boat. Hamza's injured arm, she realised, must be holding him back.

The engine sputtered into life under Lyle's hands. The little boat started out from the jetty and towards the swimmers.

Mounted lights flashed out. Jenny blinked and then the motor boat was alongside her, arms reaching down. She scrambled up and let Liz haul her on board. Turning she saw Hamza still in the water. Lyle moved them closer and Hamza grabbed hold of the edge. Jenny leaned forward to help him and the boat tipped dangerously to one side. Liz threw herself backwards leaning out to counter-balance the weight.

"Something's got my ankle," said Hamza.

Jenny hauled desperately on his arm, watching him wince as her fingers dug into the makeshift bandage on his shoulder.

"Liz! Helm!" shouted Lyle. "Jenny, let go of him and step back."

Jenny looked over her shoulder, Lyle was stepping forwards, SA80 at the ready.

"You'd better know where you're aiming that thing," remarked Hamza.

Lyle opened fire. Hamza's head ducked down against the edge of the boat and then suddenly he heaved himself over the side.

"What the?" asked Lyle.

A thick, sinuous tentacle was wrapped around Hamza's ankle. Hamza grimaced and began to pull it off. "Doesn't seem to have stingers, luckily," he remarked.

At that moment a huge body surged out of the water, large tentacles waving above the boat.

"Fucking hell!" Lyle opened fire.

"Jenny! Helm!" shouted Liz.

Jenny found herself clutching a small tiller while Liz picked up a second gun and opened fire in turn. The massive creature rose further out of the water and a large mouth opened. Lyle and Liz continued firing and abruptly the thing fell backwards generating a series of waves that made the boat bob alarmingly up and down.

"Here, let me take that." Lyle gently took the tiller and turned the boat towards the harbour entrance. "Liz, you can put that gun down now, as well."

Hamza lay on his back at the bottom of the boat. Jenny placed a hand on his shoulder. "Are you all right?" she asked.

He struggled up to a sitting position. "I've had better days." He shrugged her hand away and Jenny frowned at him, wondering again what the sudden stand-offishness was all about.

"I suppose Nicholas Cutter would have known what that thing was," he said.

The pieces fell into place in Jenny's mind. Hamza obviously didn't mind a live rival for her affections, but he was going to be difficult about a dead one. A small voice inside her head tutted and said `typical man'. She decided, in that moment, that the problem needed to be dealt with before it got out of hand. She leaned down and kissed Hamza. She felt his moment of surprise and then a hand in her hair, pulling her in gently. Someone whistled, Jenny guessed it was Liz.

Hamza broke away and gazed at her. "OK, maybe not _such_ a bad day. What was that for?"

Jenny smiled. "It wasn't _for_ anything, except maybe to say would you like dinner?"

"What about your dead complicated professor?"

"He was never as important as he sometimes seemed to be."

Lyle, at the tiller snorted. "He was a fucking idiot. Don't get me wrong. He was a good man, we all miss him, but a fucking idiot. If you're worried about being second best to the great man, Sayed, you'll need start rushing off into danger without back-up and talking a load of bollocks."

Hamza laughed and sank damply back onto the floor of the boat. "Isn't that what I do all the time?"

"OK, well, yeah, but not the same. Totally not the same. You talk less bollocks at any rate."

Hamza closed his eyes and Jenny wondered how much pain he was in. She reached out as his eyes flickered back open and his hand tangled in hers. "Dinner it is, then," he said.

"Right! Now we get out of here! I think we've caused enough chaos that it won't matter if we leave the harbour standing. Besides we all need dry clothes and fast." Lyle swung the tiller and they headed for the harbour mouth. Beyond them the dawn was just beginning to break as the sun rose above the sea.

* * *

As they stepped off the UNIT jet, Lyle could see Lester and his ex-wife waiting on the tarmac. Liz almost jumped off the steps and ran to them. Lyle followed more sedately and watched as Liz flung her arms round her father. He also saw the expression of sudden and brief pain that flitted across Cathy's face at the way Liz excluded her, even in a moment such as this.

Lester wrapped his arms round Liz and held her tight for a moment. But then his head raised and he stared out accusingly at Lyle. Lyle had heard one half of Liz's conversation with Lester on the UNIT satellite phone. She'd come down hard from the excitement and the horror of the night. When she started to talk about the killings her words had been swallowed up by the effort of restraining sobs. Lester glared at Lyle for a moment then, pointedly, he turned his back and lead Liz away.

Lyle felt a gentle hand on his arm and looked up to see Jenny standing there. "Give him time," she said.

Lyle's thumbs were pricking. "I put her life in danger and ended up turning her into a killer. He's not going to forgive that quickly."

"Her life was in danger anyway and she's a lot tougher than I think even the two of you give her credit for. Wait and see."

* * *

Jenny was tired when she finally walked out of the debriefing with several UNIT high-ups. They hadn't kept her long, maybe an hour, but as she'd run over events with them, she'd felt a huge weariness creeping over her and her eyelids were drooping.

"We'll get you a driver to take you home," she heard someone say.

She nodded faintly and let them lead her to a cramped waiting room where she was bought a cup of truly terrible coffee by a young and spotty private.

"They said you needed a driver. Will I do?"

She looked up, startled, to see Hamza standing in front of her.

"Are they done debriefing you?"

"Not really, but they're done for now. There'll be more questions in the morning, but I asked if I could take you home and keep an eye on you."

"Keep an eye on me?"

He looked suddenly serious. "We don't think C19 is going to try anything, but just in case. Doesn't have to be me, if you'd prefer someone else."

Jenny smiled. "No, it's fine. I hope you like ready-meals though."

"Sounds like heaven."

"OK Captain Sayed. Ready meals for two it is." She slipped an arm through his as she stood up. "And I hope you're not going to be all strange about Nick Cutter."

"Nah, Lyle's been listing his faults for me. I'm going to assume he's not a problem until it turns out he is."

Jenny laughed. "Lyle really is an old woman underneath it all, isn't he!"

"Too true. My nan doesn't hold a candle to him when it comes to matchmaking and, believe you me, she prides herself on her skill."

Jenny shook her head, laughed again, and allowed herself to be escorted out of the building.

* * *

"Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. It's a pleasure to meet you." As far as Lester was concerned it was no pleasure at all, but when UNIT bigwigs made appointments you might as well bow to the inevitable, so he was making the best of it and being polite.

The elderly man grunted. "Pleased to meet you too, sir."

Lester gestured to a seat and then sat back down behind his desk. "How may I help you?"

"It's more a question of how I may help you."

"I don't quite follow."

"I'm a bit of an old dinosaur, Mr. Lester. UNIT keep me around for the sake of morale. Everyso often I come in and regale the troops with tales of the old days when we held off alien invasions with string and double-sided sticky tape."

"I imagine you were a little more efficient than that."

"Well, maybe a little, but these days I just get wheeled out for events, medal ceremonies, posh dinners, that kind of thing. I got sent out for lunch recently with a charming couple. A young UNIT Captain who I gather is your liaison and a very poised young lady who I understand used to work for you."

"Miss Lewis."

"Indeed, very careless of you to let her go, in my opinion."

"I didn't have a lot of choice, she resigned."

The Brigadier grunted. "In my day, I didn't take `I quit' for an answer. Can't have good people resigning on you. UNIT are trying to poach her, you know. That's why they had me wining and dining them in Claridges."

"Did it work?"

"Might have done, hard to say. A little too sharp, your Miss Lewis, to be taken in by the glamour an old duffer and his tales of alien invasions."

"She was a good manager. There are a lot of bad memories here but I think she might take up a similar job again, in different circumstances, if the offer was right. Is that why you're here?"

"Not really. I gathered a little about that recent kerfuffle up in Scotland, involving your daughter."

Lester stiffened quietly behind his desk.

"Now, don't go looking all severe. Captain Sayed and Miss Lewis were very discreet, but you have to forgive an old soldier like me some curiosity. I did some digging."

"And...?"

"I've a wife, an ex-wife and a daughter, you know, and a grandson these days. You try to keep them out of the firing line, but it's a strain. My first wife left me and my daughter, well, never really forgave me for it."

"It's a common enough story throughout the army and the civil service. I hardly see..."

"You can't completely protect them, Mr. Lester. From what I hear, you had some unusual domestic arrangements, but you were blessed with two people who, when you couldn't protect them yourself, were more than capable of protecting themselves and each other. That's unusual in this business. You shouldn't blame them for it."

"She is only sixteen."

"Children can be remarkably resilient. I'm not saying you should put them in the firing line, but I gather that once she was there, your daughter coped admirably and she was fortunate to have a parent, of a kind, with her to help out."

"She should never have been put in that position."

"No, but you are not to blame for that, nor is Captain Lyle. Mr. Lester, you can't completely protect them. If you can't accept that fact, get out of this business, don't push them away. Besides, the Captain just accepted a commission with UNIT. If you don't do something quickly, you won't have any staff left."

Lester stared across the desk at the old soldier. "UNIT is a better place for him."

"Maybe, but he should come to us because it's where he wants to be, not because he's escaping from somewhere he doesn't feel wanted." The Brigadier broke eye contact and harrumphed. "Well, I've said my piece. I'll leave you to think on it." He nodded and left the room.

Lester sat in silence for a moment and then opened a drawer. Inside was a photo of himself, Liz and Lyle. The frame was bright and tacky, something Lyle had given him as a joke and which he'd put on his desk in a kind of one-upmanship. All three of them were smiling at the camera, just like any other family. Thoughtfully he placed it back on the desk.


End file.
